Another "Help me with this title" thread

Cafe Society
1

I wasn’t sure if this belonged here or over in GQ but since it’s about a book I’ll put it here and the mods can move it if they think GQ is more appropriate.

So I was thinking about this book today, and I can’t for the life of me remember what the title is or who wrote it. Care to help me out?

It’s a YA book. The author has actually written a bunch but I can only remember the story of this particular one as I found it among a bunch of my other old stuff and reread it so it’s the most recent one in my memory.

Anyway, the story is about this sort of geeky kid with glasses who gets sent to live with a relative (uncle?), I belive when his parents die, though I may be wrong about that part. His uncle lives is a big castle-type house. There’s a lady next door who always comes over, and she likes to wear purple dresses. They both turn out to be wizards.

The kid finally makes a friend when a popular athletic kid in school breaks his arm and can’t play baseball anymore. They break into a cemetary one night to “raise someone from the dead”.

Then mysterious stuff across the street starts happening in a house that used to be empty. Turns out another wizard used to live in the castle-type house with his wife and they made an evil clock that’s ticking down to the end of the universe. When they died the kid’s uncle moved into the house, but now it seems the two bad guys are back from the dead and making sure the uncle doesn’t stop the clock before it can reach the end.

So, sound familiar to anyone? It’s drivin’ me nuts! Somebody please help me out!

2

I don’t know it, sorry, but it sounds fascinating.

When I was a teenager, there were all sorts of books that I fell in love with that I can’t find now. It makes me sad, but it also makes the memory that much more precious.

I hope you find your book.

3

Thanks Heloise, I’m pretty sure I will find it because I think it was left at my parents’ house when I struck out on my own; they’ve recently moved back to the US so hopefully I’ll find it when we go through their shipment. It’s just driving me crazy for now, not being able to remember!

4

Ooh oooh OOOOH
“The House with a Clock in its Walls” by John Bellairs. I loved this books, and he wrote a few about the kid and the crazy uncle. I remember reading it as a youngster, and when I worked at a used bookstore a few years ago, I found them and reread them. Great stuff! I want (or want to be) a crazy relative.

5

Yessss!!! Thank you so much AzRaek, that’s definitely the one. Now that itch on my brain is finally gone!